A strange almost-thriller.

Pretty standard stuff, mixing a few truly clever moments with facile drug humor and throwaway female characters.

[Streep] isa pleasure to watch -- and to marvel at -- every second she's onscreen.

Takes its name from the king protea, the national flower of South Africa. The stunning, artichoke-like shrub may be fragrant, but the movie's pretty much a stinker.

About as awful as a film can be without being the ultimate awful, which is boring.

What the movie lacks -- a big lack, not a fatal lack -- is a compelling character at its center. Everyone in Garden State is fun, skewed, strange and singular.

Ambitious and brilliant.

An important new documentary that cites countless examples of self-censorship, under-reporting of serious issues, and -- worse than this -- deliberate neglect and outright conflicts of interest.

A heartfelt tribute to both the player and the man.

For Friday night this will do just fine. It's definitely a good matchup -- Stone's cynical bravado versus Berry's resilient spunkiness in a world-class cat fight.

To members of the Darko cult, this may not be an improvement, but it could help this compelling and extremely moving film find the audience it deserves.

With this film, we see the Zinn who has changed thousands of lives with his work.

The picture is also the story of one character in particular, Bobby, and when it comes to Bobby, A Home at the End of the World is sappy and bogus.

Hyper-violent yet emotionally powerful.

Bluntly speaking, Ju-On is anything but frightening. Ridiculous. Unbelievable. Unintentionally funny. It might as well be a parody of a horror film.

Almost everything that made "The Bourne Identity" refreshing -- the wit, the irony, the suspense, the novelty of its premise -- is gone in The Bourne Supremacy, and what's left is the spectacle of Matt Damon, with perfect posture and senses primed like a cat, making his way through a routine action thriller.

An intriguing brain-teaser.

It's not a terrible movie, just a disappointingly pleasant one.

A revelatory independent film whose moments of incredible sadness are offset by the same state of grace that blesses its astonishing title character.

First-time feature director Rashid has made a piece of eye candy that's irresistible. The point of this film may be to embrace reality, but frankly, who needs it?

Although I, Robot provokes thought, it doesn't exactly deliver thought, despite the occasional Cartesian reference to "ghosts in the machine."

Showcasing three individuals whose spiritual and physical journeys are both repellent and mundane, the film is just a long and pointless slog.

Isn't about rock music or even the people who make it; it's about people, period, and the myriad ways they mangle themselves and each other.

A good-hearted 'tween comedy hampered by uneven direction and a misguided plot twist.

Feels like an extended skit stretched and stretched, maybe not to the breaking point, but to the sagging point.

Offers a thrilling, informative history of a sport-subculture.

In King Arthur, everything goes wrong. The film combines the plodding sincerity of a Ph.D. dissertation with the brains of a high-concept Jerry Bruckheimer- produced blockbuster (which it is), and no one benefits.

A feel-good movie.

Pretty and vague, the kind of film that might play on a loop at a county fair's Americana exhibit.

The very best thrillers -- a select group to which The Clearing clearly belongs -- exploit subconscious fears that bubble up at vulnerable moments.

Magnificent but somewhat frustrating movie.

A mishmash of a musical. The movie never gels -- despite Kline's nuanced performance, the stars' exquisite period clothes, designed by Armani, and, of course, Porter's great songs.

Smart, fun entertainment.

An old-fashioned and occasionally schmaltzy movie that delivers an emotional wallop

Sweaty, filthy, miserable and well acted.

Lacks a certain je ne sais quoi.

Nightmare-inducing.

The result is schizophrenic, an uplifting film that's truly depressing, a movie about cruelty that tries to be fluffy.

In White Chicks, the gross-out humor is minimal, no character comes off too badly and lessons are learned. Oh Wayanses, where are thy teeth?

Assessing the merits of a political film is a tricky business. Obviously, its quality is partly a function of its power to persuade, but its persuasiveness is in the eye of the beholder.

Well-intentioned but frequently inert.

Makes a persuasive case.

Poignant and carefully observed, the Italian drama Facing Windows portrays two consuming, illicit romances: one in the present, the other kept alive in faulty memory. The long-ago relationship holds far more intrigue.

A sweet, bordering on saccharine, comedy.

Passes by like a dream.

In I'll Sleep When I'm Dead,' master of stylish criminality Mike Hodges presents a nighttime London of sharp suits, distorted jazz notes and shiny luxury sedans cruising dirty streets.

I liked every minute in it. Other films are like empty containers; this one's full. It's full of invention, full of moments, full of business, full of the nuances of human interaction, full of feeling.

The biggest puzzlement about "What'' is what it's doing in major movie theaters around the country when it so clearly belongs on one of those small cable channels given to peculiar programming.

Yes, the movie's watchable, and there are about six good laughs in it, but six good (not great) laughs in 90 minutes is pretty paltry for a comedy.

Coraci has given us a film that is not only amusing, but well-acted, and not only well-acted, but gorgeous. Micha Klein's animated transitions alone, which are used to signal each change in location, are wondrous and lovely to behold.

Intrusive, excessively brooding and narcissistic.

A thoroughly entertaining and hilarious look at a board game that's an occasional amusement for some -- and a serious obsession (or disturbing addiction) for others.

A powerful and disturbing political drama.

An intriguing exploration of New York theater at the height of its glory.

Just about everything in The Chronicles of Riddick is impenetrable, from the convoluted story to the dark and baroque art direction. It's an inane film rendered sometimes laughable by an atmosphere of dead-serious reverence.

Before it degenerates into a complete mess, it's an entertaining mess, and something about its willingness to please maintains the audience's goodwill throughout.

Nothing really works here, and nobody seems to have put in a huge amount of effort, except maybe the marketing department -- there are many product placements.

Has to be enjoyed in spurts. There's no cohesive story, just a series of opportunities for the title character (Jon Heder) to strut his gawky stuff.

Fascinating and impressively balanced documentary.

Weeping Camel essentially lets native people tell their own unforgettable story.

There is no rage here or Michael Moore-like bluster. Instead, Deadline is a straightforward, compassionate look at a volatile subject.

It’s coolheaded and incisive, a thorough and informative study of corporations, their origins and their place in the modern world.

A different kind of Harry Potter movie, a better kind... It's where this fantasy series has wanted to go all along.

Amounts to an infomercial posing as an expose.

It's the portrait of an artist who had neither time nor respect for literary niceties -- he was, in the words of publisher John Martin, a "man of the street writing for the man of the street."

A better- than-average comedy that is raunchy and tasteless but ultimately funny from beginning to end.

The achievement of Saved!, a very funny teen comedy set in a Christian high school, lies in its careful avoidance of obvious traps.

Daring in its affirmation that a dowdy woman in her late 60s still can let go of her inhibitions and exhibit a lascivious side.

Baadasssss! is the portrait of a visionary with a blind spot, a man starved for kindness who can no longer recognize the responsibility to be kind, even to his kids. But it's a portrait of a visionary nonetheless.

The spectacle, which is colossal and at times staggering to behold, begins within two minutes of the fade-in and keeps coming until the finish. I thought I'd seen it all. I hadn't.

Self-indulgent and admirable.

In The Five Obstructions, we meet the Danish filmmaker for an extended period, and he's exactly what a fan might hope and expect him to be like: impish, insightful, unpredictable, mildly sadistic and rigorously honest.

Far from the worst cookie-cutter film to come off the Hollywood assembly line, merely the latest.

Cloying mix of screwball comedy and drama.

Has to be one of the least charming French romances to find American distribution in recent years.

A masterpiece.

One of the year’s most significant films.

Although the acting is uneven and the movie's dead spots make it feel far longer than its running time, the twist in Twist' is certainly clever.

A sequel was called for, and so a sequel has arrived -- but it's a slightly zombie-like version, with the size, look and shape of the original movie, but without its lightness or spirit, its soul.

Harrowing but compassionate.

The freshest thing about Breakin' All the Rules is its dropped "g.''

Has an oddness and whimsicality about it that can, at first, be confused for authenticity.

A disturbing drama about the dehumanizing and humiliating effects of war.

Only a director who truly knows repression could have made a movie so subtle and so understanding.

Doesn't know what it wants to be: either a goofball satire or a heavy-handed social-message movie.

Flat and uninspired.

All Hollywood and no Homer, but within its limits, it's a vigorous, entertaining movie.

A little picture -- the names of the entire cast would fit on half a sheet of paper -- but it’s more heartfelt than movies with 50 times the budget.

A new restoration takes a flawed bit of monster camp and turns it back into a strong, serious-minded and occasionally moving science-fiction film.

Can be enjoyed if you don't mind a little manipulation.

In the 2002 South Korean film Oasis, one can appreciate one of Asia's best directors (Lee Chang-dong) and one of the region's best actresses (Moon So-ri).

A cautionary tale as well as an expose on the power of the American fast-food industry. That the documentary comes across as more than a sermon has a lot to do with Spurlock's personality, which is outgoing and instantly engaging.

Sommers film just lies there, weighted down by a complete lack of wit, artfulness and internal logic. So it's a disaster -- a big, loud, boring wreck.

It lives up to its title, flying by in fast motion. Even the first-wave MTV generation may find the pace exhausting, but this piece of fluff wasn't made for them.

Funny, affectionate documentary.

A small gem.

Sly, stylishly cynical dark farce.

Brosnan and Moore display a knack for fast delivery of smart dialogue both in court and in bed. Their verbal sparring is the main attraction of Laws of Attraction and helped me overlook plot holes of massive proportions.